On an information filed by the Attorney-General of Bendel State, the accused, now appellant, was charged with the murder of one Dele Kukuru on or about the 4th day of August, 1985 at Sapele in the Sapele Judicial Di¬vision of Bendel State. The charge arose from the committal of the accused to the High Court for trial by the Magistrate who conducted a preliminary in¬quiry under the provisions of Part 36 of the Criminal Procedure Act or Law.

On an information filed by the Attorney-General of Bendel State, the accused, now appellant, was charged with the murder of one Dele Kukuru on or about the 4th day of August, 1985 at Sapele in the Sapele Judicial Di¬vision of Bendel State. The charge arose from the committal of the accused to the High Court for trial by the Magistrate who conducted a preliminary in¬quiry under the provisions of Part 36 of the Criminal Procedure Act or Law.:

At the trial it was the case for the prosecution that on 4th August, 1985, as soon as four persons, including the deceased Dele Kukuru and P.W.1, Joseph Boyitie alighted from a bus, they saw two other persons running to¬wards their direction. The two persons were apparently being pursued by some people shouting "thief, thief". The accused who was one of the persons being pursued was armed with a dagger. On getting to where the four persons were he stabbed all four of them, inflicting varying degree of injuries on them. The deceased fell down the moment he was stabbed. The other three who tried to render help to the deceased had to flee in disarray because the accused still pursued them, weilding menacingly the dagger he was armed with. The incident took place along a well lit street.

P.W.1 had known the accused before the date of the incident. The corpse of the deceased who had died from the stab which lacerated the chamber of his heart resulting in severe internal haemorrhage was recovered that night by the police at the Sapele Clinic. This was after P.W.1 and others had reported the incident at the police station, P.W.1 in his statement mentioned the accused by name as the assailant.

Following the incident the accused took refuge in the house of his friend, P.W 2 John Agbamisa, whom he told that he had been engaged in a fight with certain persons and that one of those he stabbed had died. He pleaded with P.W.2 to allow him spend the night in his house. After the ac¬cused had eaten and was overcome by sleep, P.W.2 sneaked away to the police station and lodged a complaint against the accused. The police went with him to his house where the accused who was still asleep was chained by them without resistance. He was woken up and searched and a blood stained dagger was recovered from his person.

In his defence the accused set up an alibi to the effect that he was at " P.W.2's house from 5 p.m. on 4/8/85, that is, before the incident leading to the death of the deceased, to 2 a.m. of the following day when he was arrested. According to him he had gone there to collect his wrist watch from P.W.2 whom he did not meet at home. While waiting there for the arrival of P.W.2 he fell asleep and was woken up by two armed policemen who apprehended and took him to the police station. He denied telling P.W.2 that he had stabbed someone.

In his address, learned counsel for the accused submitted that the committal of the accused to the High Court for trial was null and void because of non-compliance with the provisions of sections 314 and 323 of the Criminal Procedure Act (C.P.A.). He also argued that the prosecution had not proved the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. Learned counsel for the prosecution however submitted that there was compliance with the relevant provisions of the C.P.A. and that if there was in fact non-compliance such non-compliance was not prejudicial to the accused.

In a reserved judgment the learned trial Judge held that the magistrate complied with the relevant provisions of the C.P.A. He was also satisfied that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and re¬jected the defence of alibi. The accused was therefore found guilty of the of¬fence of murder and was convicted and sentenced accordingly.

The appellant's appeal from that judgment to the Court of Appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The appellant appealed to the Supreme Court where he again raised the issues of non-compliance with Sections 314 and 323 of the C.P.A. and lack of proper consideration by the trial court of his defence of alibi.